1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to motorized carts for the transportation and delivery of a load of material. More particularly, the present invention relates to motorized carts with front wheel drive for moving and dumping heavy loads.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Various types of carts and wheelbarrows have for years been found useful for transporting heavy loads. Single wheeled barrows are particularly useful in a variety of settings. Typically, while in use, the wheelbarrow's load is balanced over the wheel. As a result, the user of the wheelbarrow is not required to bear the weight of the entire load. The load, rather, is merely lifted until its weight pivots over the wheel sufficiently to place a substantial amount of the weight on the wheel. While this mechanism is effective for many uses for transporting small but heavy loads, the load may become unbalanced or where the wheelbarrow is moved over soft or rough terrain the heaviness of the load may cause a wheelbarrow to bog down or become difficult to move.
Various attempts to assist the user of wheelbarrows in carrying loads over rough terrain have been made by adding power drives to single wheeled wheelbarrows. One such example is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,638,172 and another in U.S. Pat. No. 4,589,508 wherein there is shown single wheeled wheelbarrows each having a motor located toward the rear of the load carrying bed. A disadvantage of these types of motorized wheelbarrow is that the motor is located to the rear of the wheel resulting in a burden on the user to lift the motor while moving the wheelbarrow from place to place. When the wheelbarrow is dumped over the wheel, the weight of the motor remains a cantilevered burden which must be raised up to a position in which it becomes top-heavy when the load slides out of the hopper or pan, progressively reducing the "ballast" as the wheelbarrow approaches the vertical. Additionally, because the motor is located below the bottom of the wheelbarrow pan it is close to the ground and must be lifted to prevent hitting any projections, such as stones, bricks or other debris which may be in the path of travel.
There have also been proposed motorized wheelbarrows which have a motor located close to the wheel. One such device is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,791,470. These devices also have similar deficiencies of single wheeled vehicles.
There is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,811,988 a four wheeled load carrier which has a motor located near the rear axle. Because of the difficulty of raising the entire device to dump the load there is provided a separately detachable frame for carrying a load pan or hopper engaged with and hinged to the main frame at the forward end to be tipped forward to unload the pan. The weight of the motor means that an additional frame is needed to support the barrow for dumping. Also of note is U.S. Pat. No. 2,918,133 which discloses a cart having a rear mounted motor the hopper of which is hingedly connected to the frame in a manner to forwardly tilt and dump the load.
It is, therefore, the general object of the present invention to provide a motorized cart for transporting and delivering a load of material from one location to another.
Another object of this invention is to provide a motorized cart in which the load carrying hopper or pan can be moved from a stable position for transporting the load to a position where the load can be dumped without lifting the entire weight of the load and the motive means and in which the cart remains stable during dumping.
Yet another object of this invention is to provide a motorized cart having the motive means in a raised location protected from damaging contact with objects projecting from the path of travel such as stones, bricks, stakes and the like.
A still further object of this invention is to provide a motorized cart having a pair of front drive wheels providing stable side to side balance when the cart is moved over uneven terrain or when the load shifts.
The foregoing and other objects, advantages and features of this invention, and the manner in which the same are accomplished will become more readily apparent upon consideration of the following detailed description of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, which illustrate preferred and exemplary embodiments.